1. For every jumbo-size, CGI-filled, action-adventure extravaganza a studio greenlights, it should commit to one modestly budgeted drama or comedy.
Despite the studios' single-minded focus on costly tentpoles aimed at younger audiences, the masses sometimes actually prefer the leaner, smarter fare: True Grit, The Fighter, Black Swan, The Town, and The King's Speech were all produced for less than $40 million each (and in the case of the $13 million Black Swan, much less), and each managed to double, triple, even quadruple (or more) its production cost. Meanwhile, supposedly surefire projects like the Jack Black comedy Gulliver's Travels and Reese Witherspoon's How Do You Know reportedly cost more than $100 million and earned less than half that in U.S. ticket sales.
So it would make good sense for movie companies to balance their release slates with a handful of more sensibly budgeted entries. The key is to be patient with the smaller movies — True Grit, after all, didn't hit No. 1 at the box office until its third week in wide release.
Image Credit: Niko Tavernise
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